Junk and Cheap Camera Month: Will it or won’t it work for me?

I was so happy to see this camera on the WYC charity table. I regretted selling the one I had when I returned from Japan. This one looked clean and was only £5, it was worth the risk.

When I put batteries it, the camera seemed to work as it should. Now, I have been very lucky with this junk camera month, but I think you can see by the tone of this beginning where this one is heading. Also, I even forgot to take photos of the camera, another hint.

I screen grabbed this photos from my Instagram page.

Of course, it didn’t come with a lens, not for £5. I loaded a roll of expired film and went for a walk. When I returned, I developed the film and the roll was a puzzle. Some of the photos were perfect, the rest of the film was blank.

For the most part, I left the film on auto, maybe these were the ones I tried on manual and the lens wasn’t communicating with the body?? Maybe I should try a Contax lens? So I swapped out the Tamron lens and put on a 50mm f1.4, loaded another expired film and shot half a roll in my garden.

I got the same results, some of the photos were perfect and the rest of the film was blank.

Well, this was strange, why was it working sometimes. I wanted to see what was happening with the shutter.

I opened the back and tried to watch the shutter in action. But here is the thing, if you open the back the shutter does not respond to the controls and fires the shutter at the same speed no matter what you set it to. Maybe I could fool it somehow?

I put a small screwdriver in the door lock and pushed the mechanism. The camera then thought the door was shut and I could watch it work. I put the camera in manual and watched it as I changed the speed settings. I started in auto and everything seemed fine, then I switched to manual and Bulb. Again, everything was fine. I then changed the speed, increasing it each time I fired the shutter. There was an issue. It was not opening at the upper speeds. So when the camera chose a speed less than 1/125th it was fine. Above that, it didn’t seem to open. Maybe it needed cleaning. I tried my usual method and it started to open in the upper speeds.

I loaded the other half of the film and went for another walk.

Well, it was definitely opening now, but it was not closing quickly enough in the faster settings before the camera advanced the film. It’s a cool effect, but it also meant the camera was not working.

Did it work for me? No, well, I suppose yes in the slower speeds, but no in the upper ones. I ended up selling the camera for parts and got my money back. So I didn’t lose anything. I have one more Contax cameras from the charity sale to try. One working Contax, one non-working…oooh the next one will tip the scales one way or another.